Suella Braverman this week took to the airwaves to declare “there is no good reason for anybody to get into a small boat”. The home secretary then suggested those fleeing Sudan should seek asylum in the UK through the UN Refugee Agency – a route the UN Refugee Agency then pointed out does not exist.
Hearing these comments really jarred. Last week I was in Dunkirk meeting people attempting to reach the UK by small boat. I saw the ways in which the £63m package from the government is being used by French police patrols to destroy boats, slashing through them and forcing people to sleep in bus shelters, soaked through, after a failed attempt to cross the Channel. The increased police presence is now pushing people further round the coastline – in some cases, as far as Normandy – to make longer, more dangerous crossings.
All safe routes are effectively closed. The Afghanistan Citizens Resettlement Scheme has been an utter failure, bringing only a handful of people who worked with or alongside the British government to the UK in the first eighteen months. And there have been no suggestions a resettlement programme will be opened for those fleeing Sudan. No good reason to get in a small boat? There is no choice but to get in a small boat.
